"Cursed" ring found on beach

Could this mysterious, 3,000-year-old ring be part of the lost - and cursed - treasure of Tutankhamun ?

It's owner, Markas Dove of Kintbury, certainly believes so. Since the ring was unearthed by a huge storm in 1987, Mr Dove has been offered a fortune for the ring, although bad luck has followed in its wake.

Mr Dove said: "My dad found the band with a metal detector after the hurricane of 1987 removed about 10 feet off the beach at the Isle of Wight."It was about 18 inches down beneath the shingle, among the bedrock."

Mr Dove revealed how everything went wrong for his father and mother following the discovery. He said: "Mum developed cancer almost immediately and they lost their home. Dad developed severe depression and nothing seemed to go right for them."

The ring has since passed to Mr Dove, who took it to the British Museum to be authenticated. Elisabeth O'Connell, the research curator at the British Museum's Egyptology department, said:

"The inscription suggests it belonged to either Tutankhamun or one of his inner court. "I would not like to try and put a figure on its value."

She added that an early-20th-century shipwreck of a vessel carrying Egyptian antiquities was the most likely explanation for the find.

Mr Dove said: "To be honest it has caused nothing but grief. I won't have it in the house now. It's in a friend's safe."